Today Labour are forcing a vote on welfare reform and the strange thing about it is both the Tories and Labour are happy with the dividing line. Labour’s position is that they want a freeze on public sector pay and to raise benefits – hence the Tory attack poster this morning.

Labour argue that welfare reforms will take money from in work benefit recipents – strivers. IDS argued this morning that since Brown made 90% of workers welfare recipients that is inevitable. In an example this weekend the Observer warned that in-work welfare recipients could lose up to £470 per annum. Ignoring that the tax threshold hike will largely cancel out and compensate for that loss. Taking people off benefits and out of tax – ending Gordon Brown’s madly wasteful money-go-round…

Yvette Cooper and Ed Balls will lose their child benefit today, though with a joint income of some £130,000 they should be able to cope. Millionaires Ed and Justine Miliband probably won’t even notice it is gone with their £400,000 plus income. Labour have to sell on the doorstep paying welfare benefits to millionaires and raising benefits higher than workers’ wages. They think it can be spun as a vote winner…

Quote of the Day

Dominic Raab wrote in his letter of resignation…

“This is, at its heart, a matter of public trust,” he told the PM, concluding: “I cannot reconcile the terms of the proposed deal with the promises we made to the country in our manifesto at the last election… I believe that the regulatory regime proposed for Northern Ireland presents a very real threat to the integrity of the United Kingdom. I cannot support an indefinite backstop arrangement, where the EU holds a veto over our ability to exit…”